1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to graphically generated control panels utilizing a touchscreen overlay on the display monitor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Touchscreen control panels are known in the art that utilize a touchscreen overlay on the raster cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor. The system software displays graphic symbology on the monitor representing the front panel controls for the system. The operator interfaces with the system by touching the screen in the area of a control. Actuation of the control is performed by the system software detecting the touch and entering an appropriate control routine corresponding thereto. Prior art touch panels require a large touch area for each control to prevent operator error such as inadvertant actuation of an undesired control function. In the prior art, the system software either displays the control over a larger than desired area or utilizes a larger than desired touch sensitive area associated with the control. These requirements severely limit the density of displayed controls on the graphically generated control panel.
It is desirable to utilize the touchscreen control technology in implementing the control panel of, for example, a radar system with collision avoidance functionality utilizing a raster scanned display on a CRT monitor. The software generated touch panel control provides the operator interface for controlling the radar and collision avoidance display. It is a desideratum to minimize the number of front panel mechanical controls thereby providing an uncluttered easily utilized radar and collision avoidance system. Ideally, it is desirable to eliminate all mechanical controls and to provide the operator control interface by the touch panel technology. By placing all of the radar and collision avoidance controls on the raster display, the relatively high density of controls required exacerbated the problem of operator control error.
In addition to the above described limitations of prior art touchscreen control panels, adjustment controls such as potentiometers with, for example, thumbwheel actuation were not conveniently incorporated in such software generated control panels.